Hillary Clinton: One-term president?

She stands a good chance of winning in 2016. But I bet she'll lose in 2020.

Hillary Clinton
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

America's president was swept into office by a tidal wave of popular support, generating remarkable enthusiasm and building on a broad distaste for his predecessor, who left behind a flagging economy and an unpopular foreign policy. When his two terms were nearly complete, the president endorsed the clear frontrunner for his party's nomination, a Washington insider whom he'd competed against in his primary campaign two elections past. The president's choice won — but couldn't hold onto that victory. Just four years later, the opposition seized the White House.

This is what happened to Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. And soon, history may well repeat itself: Don't be surprised if this tale of Reagan and Bush Classic is repeated by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.